Receiving container in STX

We are loading up the container tomorrow. There are no rules with what can in your vehicle if you are loading that vehicle inside of a container. They bring the container on the back of a truck and are given a set amount of time to load up. We will be loading the HHG's we are taking into the nose of the container. We will have a flatbed tow truck on site to help get the vehicles into the container. Those vehicles are stuffed with stuff as well. We have 2x4's to cut up and nail down around the tires of the cars inside the container as well as tie down straps to make them extra secure. We also have lots of rope and tie downs to help secure the HHG's as well.

Spl123, We have a Nissan Xterran and Nissan Versa. We will have to pay 6% sales tax on the Versa as it was manufactured in Mexico but no tax on the Xterra as it's made in the USA.

Load date is July 9th and it is scheduled to be in STX by July 21st according to shipping quote and confirmation.

I will update this when I can to say what our progress is and what our process ended up being.

Can I ask how much its costing you to ship the container??

Thanks Tommy and please let me know how every thing went with your moving, and what company you are using... We have another few month to begin packing. Thanks again.

We are using International Logistics that is linked on this webpage in the moving section. Meme has been a great help thus far.

The loading of the container went very smoothly. Will report more on things once we get down there to claim our stuff at the port in St. Croix.

Price for the 40' container from Pittsburgh to St. Croix is $6575. I'm guessing these prices are pretty fluid and adjust with fuel prices and such.

Wow! $6575 to ship a container! and some people think the cost of a PMV is unneccesary or a waste of time and money.

I'm now camped out on a bed in the a/c and can update our status--- as it's along these lines.

We shipped with Crowley (Patrick Nugent) and for the most part- it was good. Our 20' was a lot le$$ than what has been previously stated by using International Logistics- BUT--- I don't know if there were 'extras' in that that we didn't get- or how the two might compare apples-to-apples.

Our 20' container sits outside on the hill near the house, and we'll take a crack at unloading some of it tonight when it cools off, and we have help from our landscape crew guys who asked if we needed help today when they did the grounds around the house. O'Neale delivered it and in seven days (or sooner) they'll come get it...and our driveway is a BEAST of a climb and they put it into a tiny spot for us...so 'two thumbs up' on their putting a container where I barely felt able to back my Wrangler in.

I will do a 'moving story' for the JAX side of things.....but for the receiving container in STX that this thread is: we had O'Neale clear our container for about $90. Delivery/pickup was $150 to our location. We did the customs/clear/pickup on our two vehicles, which Crowley also shipped for us out of JAX on a 40' flat rack. That was running back and forth from port to Internal Revenue, to Customs, back to port, etc.

I will say that STX could save some grief in putting offices and things in similar locations....and the hokey-pokey of going back and forth to get things done does tend to drive one to drink- and thankfully THAT at least is cheap. I also wonder about the $0.16/lb 'road tax' given the state of the roads...but...I digress.

So...after 2+ months of craziness between our PMV and now...we are, in fact, on island. Cue the band...and break out the rum.

As long as you don't request the band to play "This is how WE do it back in the States" after the "Hokey Pokey" it should be a good rum fest.

OK, we are all done and settled in to our new place.

Meme at International Logistics uses Ferrol Trucking here in STX. We went to the Ferrol Trucking building at the container port once our container had arrived. It took an extra day due to some extenuating circumstances to claim our container. Anyway, Ferrol gave us a copy of the shipping manifest so we could go pay the road tax on both vehicles that were inside the container. Came back and they had the container delivered up to the yard where they arranged for a flatbed towtruck to help offload both vehicles. Unloaded the vehicles and customs only really inspected one of them as it was the one built in Mexico that needed taxes paid on it. I don't think they even glimpsed at the household goods we had in the container. We did have a pretty good shipping list put together so maybe that helped. We had to wait a bit for the customs officer to make it back to the customs office which is by the airport. We then drove over to the airport and were able to pay the taxes on the non-US made car. Had the manifest stamped and were then able to take both vehicles to our new home. Was able to use connections from our new landlord and had the cars registered in no time. Ferrol trucking put a small container on the back of the flatbed truck and hauled our goods from the port to our house. Total cost for Ferrol to include helping getting the cars out of the container and taking our goods from port to our house was $300. It was actually much more simple than I had anticipated. You may not get a beaming smile and roll out the red carpet type service from everyone but if you keep yourself calm and remember that you are now an islander then everything works out great. It was all pretty smooth and I never felt frustrated....a little confused at times but hey, there's no hurry here. 🙂

TommySTX i sent you a private message.

TommySTX

Congratulations on your successful move! So much good information. Just one question for now. You stated that there are no restrictions on packing things into your car if that car is put in a container. I'm assuming (I know lol) that means if the container only contains your goods, is that true?

Thanks, L

Lmarion,

I'm not 100% sure on that but I believe as long as your vehicle is inside of a shipping container then you can load it up with stuff. I don't think that it matters if you may be splitting that container with someone else. I could be wrong however as it may be the company doing the loading of your vehicle into the container if it is a split load. They may have their own restrictions.

Spl123,

I replied to your PM. 🙂

One would think, with USVI being part of the US, that the foreign car tax is already taken care of going into the US and wouldn't need to be paid again going from the mainland to USVI.

Different tax rate...